


Mutual Respect

by Mutant_Toad



Series: Stronger Together [1]
Category: The Strain (TV), The Strain Trilogy - Guillermo del Toro & Chuck Hogan
Genre: Ambiguous/Open Ending, Fighting, Gun Violence, Imprisonment, Kidnapping, Medical Imprisonment, Mild torture, Platonic Relationships, Sun Hunters - Freeform, Training, Trans Character, Unhappy Ending, Vaun is a Born, strigoi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-09
Updated: 2019-05-09
Packaged: 2020-02-28 05:57:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 10
Words: 21,621
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18750418
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mutant_Toad/pseuds/Mutant_Toad
Summary: It can be difficult to train a new Sun Hunter. Especially when things go wrong in the end. Sometimes all you can do is find a connection.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I contemplated not listing the fact that there was a transgender character as the main character. I wanted to do this for the simple reason that being trans doesn't have to be a stated thing. I did pepper in a lot of clues, but I never wanted anyone to say "Hey, you're trans!" or for her to say "Hey, I'm trans!". 
> 
> As much as I wanted to leave that out of the tags, I do also heavily believe in people being aware of what they are reading. I've picked up too many books with non-consensual material without having any warning of it whatsoever. I dislike it. It upsets me. So I did decide, in the end, to include the trans character tag. Because while I believe trans characters should be portrayed no differently than any other character (unless the story is specifically about their trans status and possible transition), I also believe that everyone should have be able to read something that doesn't make them uncomfortable. While I feel that trans characters shouldn't make you feel uncomfortable, I know there are people who hold that opinion and they should still have the right to choose to read it or not based on the content.
> 
> Anyway, if you've chosen to read this. Thank you. ^__^

The city was going to hell, but she had a doctor appointment and figured that a safe place would be a hospital. With that in mind, Charlie carefully made her way through the streets, can of pepper spray in one hand and a small gun in the other, hidden inside her coat. So far, no one had tried to attack her. They all seemed to preoccupied with looting. All Charlie wanted was to survive. She had no reason to take more than she needed and if she could, she left what cash she had behind for it. 

The hospital had been a mess. There were hardly any nurses or doctors. Barely even any patients left. It seemed like those in the worst conditions were evacuated earlier and the rest left to fend for themselves once the nurses and doctors decided to give up. 

The quietness of the halls made even the soft padding sound of her tennis shoes sound louder than they really were. Even the click the office door made as she pushed it open was so much louder than she was used to.

The waiting room was empty. Chairs were overturned all over the place. The glass sliding window of the front desk was shattered and marked with blood. Curious, as anyone would be, she peeked through the broken window and saw a nurse lying on the floor. Charlie gasped loudly. The woman’s neck was twisted at the most awful angle. Even though the woman’s stomach was to the ceiling, so was the back of her head. It took every bit of willpower she had to choke back the bile rising in her throat, “Karen…” she muttered the nurse’s name softly.

Karen was a good woman and a good nurses. One of those amazing people who seemed to smile brightly no matter what. The kind of nurse that could stick you with a needle and did it so fast that you never felt it. She and her husband were expecting their first child. 

Sure enough, and horrifyingly, most of the blood that covered the floor around Karen’s body had come from a large wound in her stomach. The baby had been removed and it’s body laid broken and mangled nearby.

Seeing that, Charlie couldn’t hold the bile back anymore. She ran and grabbed the nearest trashcan and buried her head in it until her stomach was emptied. Whatever had happened here, she knew she had to get out. 

It wasn’t uncommon to see dead people in the streets anymore, but what was scary was that many times the bodies didn’t stay there long. She knew the police weren’t out there cleaning them up. So where were all the bodies going? Charlie didn’t want to find out. She wanted to hide in her apartment until it was safe to come out. Phones weren’t working, the internet wasn’t working, bridges and roads were shut down, and even boats weren’t running. The city had gone to hell and she didn’t even have a doctor anymore.

She pulled her coat tightly around herself and started for the door. No way she was going to stick around here. At least that was the plan until she saw movement behind the front desk. Against her better judgement, as these things go, she didn’t just run. For all she knew, it could have been the person who killed Karen, “H-h-hello?” but then again, it could have been someone hurt. She wasn’t heartless. Charlie wasn’t a nurse, but she would hate herself if she didn’t try to help.

There was some noise behind the desk and a groaning. Someone was definitely in pain, “Are you hurt?” she asked as she inched back towards the counter and did her best to avoid looking at Karen and the poor baby, “I can…” what could she do? It was a hospital, but she had seen maybe one person on her way up here. She couldn’t call the police and she couldn’t find a doctor, “I can try to help you,” maybe she could at least get them out of here and somewhere safer. 

Her brown eyes scanned around behind the desk. She didn’t see anyone else initially, but then there was a twitch behind the filing cabinets, “My name’s Charlie. I’m a patient of Dr. Osmund. Can you walk? Do I need to come get you?”

There was no response. Just more groaning from the smaller office that sat behind the wall of cabinets. She had been in there before. That was Dr. Osmund’s work office. It was also used for small counseling sessions. That’s what today's appointment had been for. 

“Dr. Osmund, is that you? Do you need help?” what use could she be to a doctor? Charlie wasn’t sure, but he’d taken care of her for two years and she wasn’t going to leave without trying. Whoever hurt Karen may have hurt him and left. Wouldn’t they have attacked her by now if they were still here? 

There was still no real response, “Okay...I’m coming back there, Dr. Osmund. If anyone else is back there, I want you to know that I have pepper spray and a gun,” she knew she shouldn’t have her gun in a hospital, but with how crazy things had been lately, she felt it would have been insane not to bring it, “I’ve been shooting since I was six and I have shot people before,” well, once, and it had been her uncle in the leg on accident when she was a teenager. She was still convinced that was more his fault than her own. He knew better than to get in the line of sight as someone was aiming, “I’m not scared to shoot someone,” which was another lie. Just the thought of shooting another person made her empty stomach turn.

What did she expect to do if there was some kind of killer back there? What if they had Dr. Osmund and heard her come in and were holding a knife to his throat? Would she really be able to shoot them?

Charlie remembered the day she first met Dr. Osmund. He’d been recommended to her by her therapist two years ago. He specialized in the kind of care she needed. He was non-judgemental and, amazingly, covered under her insurance. He was nice, smiled a lot, and never had that ‘tone’ she was used to hearing from some people. She knew that more than one of his patients, herself included, made calls to him in the middle of the night in tears and he talked them through whatever it was they were going through. Charlie believed she owed him, in part, her life.

Yes. If she needed to, she could take a life to save his.

Saving a good person that helped so many was worth whatever stain it might put on her soul. Charlie was sure of that as she drew her small gun out and slowly walked around the desk and towards the back, “I will shoot you.”

Steady and with her eyes locked on the office door behind the cabinets, she stepped over Karen’s body and the body of the unborn child. As sick as it had made her, she promised herself that if she didn’t die from this that she would find something to wrap the bodies in and give them some dignity. She’d have to find Karen’s husband and tell him. There were bound to be employee files in the office somewhere.

No time to think about Karen though. Time to focus on the living. Not the dead.

“Last warning!” she called out as she got within leg’s length reach of the door, “Get out here!”

There was more than groaning this time. There was a cry of pain. Someone was being hurt. Now wasn’t the time to be scared. Now was the time for action. Charlie wasn’t the strongest person in the world, but she was no pushover. 

To prove she had a gun and was willing to shoot, she aimed for the top of the door and fired. It was loud and she was sure if there was anyone left in this hospital that they would hear it, “I’m coming in there!” she shouted. There was a shuffling sound, more groans, more whimpers of pain.

The door wasn’t closed all the way and the shot she’d fired pushed it more. Her eyes scanned what she could see inside. It was a mess and the desk was turned over. Whoever was in there was behind the desk or in the back corner behind the door. She had to think fast. If they were armed, she wouldn’t have the time to hesitate. Not if someone else’s life was at stake too.

Charlie kicked the door open the rest of the way and immediately raised her gun to the back corner. No one was there, so she went for the desk next, “Stand up!” she growled. Her body lowered a little and she took a slow step into the office, “I said, stand up!” they still didn’t listen, “If you let Dr. Osmund go, I’ll let you leave.”

“C-Charlie…” her eyes widened. That wasn’t Dr. Osmund’s voice. It was someone else back there. Did that mean that Dr. Osmund was already dead somewhere else in the office or maybe he never made it in, “...help…”

The voice cut out and she heard the strangest sound. It was almost a slurping noise. The that awful sound of someone choking and kicking against the floor. No more talking. Whoever this was wasn’t giving up and wasn’t going to stop. She’d hate herself forever for this, but it was necessary. 

Charlie rushed around the desk, gun up and finger on the trigger. She wasn’t prepared for what she saw. It was Casey, the other nurse. He was sprawled on the floor, his skin looked almost blue, his eyes were clouding over, and his body was twitching. Around his neck was some kind of tentacle of sorts. It lead up to Dr. Osmund’s mouth. 

The doctor was deathly pale, there was blood all over his body, and his arms were wrapped tight around the male nurse, “Oh god…” she muttered. 

Dr. Osmund’s dead eyes shot up to her and the tentacle broke free of Casey’s neck and retracted back into his mouth. He let out this guttural groan, “Dr. Osmund…” she whimpered as he stood up and locked his eyes onto her, “It’s me, Charlie,” but there was no recognition in his eyes. Just this disgusting hunger. 

She knew something was happening to the city, but she didn’t really know what. Is this what was happening to people? Were they killing and eating each other? What the hell was going on?

Charlie felt tears welling up in her eyes as the doctor started towards her. His mouth opened and she saw that _thing_ starting to come out again. He was going to try to do to her whatever it was he’d done to Casey, “Please, Dr. Osmund, please don’t…” 

She wasn’t sure she could kill him. It wasn’t like she didn’t know how to use a gun and she’d fired in self defense before, but never at someone she knew. Class instructors always told people that it was harder to do once the situation came up. It was easy to just say that you could kill anyone that threatened you, but it was so much harder than that. Charlie didn’t want to hurt Dr. Osmund. Even if he was the one that killed Casey, Karen, and the baby.

Her mind raced with her options. She could try to run. She could try to disable him. She could even try to keep speaking to him. Or she could aim to kill.

Charlie didn’t want to hurt Dr. Osmund. He was so important to her. He did so much for her community. If whatever had been done to him could be reversed and she killed him now, she’d never forgive herself. There would be so many people hating her if they found out. She wasn’t sure she could live with herself if it was curable. 

In the end, the choice was made by her own will to survive. His mouth opened and she that _thing_ inside it. The sound of the gun going off in the small office rang out in her ears. It had been a while since she actually shot her gun or any gun. It was a small shock to her system. An even larger one as Dr. Osmund’s body slumped to the floor in front of her. She had missed the center of his face, but took off a good portion from the side of his skull.

It wasn’t over yet though. His body moved a bit and in a knee-jerk reaction, she shot again. This time, she hit through the forehead. His body went completely limp. All Charlie could do was stare in horror at what she’d just done. No amount of mental justification made any sense right now. She had just killed one of the most important people in her life. Charlie wasn’t sure that was something that could be reasoned with or forgotten.

Charlie wasn’t sure how long she stayed in the office. Eventually, she sat on the floor across from the dead bodies of the doctor and Casey. She didn’t dare touch either of them. She wasn’t a doctor and Dr. Osmund had obviously been ill in some way. All she wanted to do was hug her knees to her chest and cry.

At some point, her stomach started growling and her bladder was screaming at her to find a bathroom. Was there someone she should call or contact? Phone had been acting up lately. She knew where the police station was. Maybe they could help.

There were few thoughts in her mind as she stared at the doctor’s body. It barely registered that his blood wasn’t the right color. Her eyes barely caught it when Casey’s body started to move. It wasn’t till he was fully standing that she noticed him, “C-C-Casey?” she said it softly, as if she were scared to startle him.

His pale eyes fixed onto her with the sound of her voice. Charlie swallowed hard as his eyes went from death white to black, like Dr. Osmund’s were. He let out an awful groan before taking a step towards her. He seemed almost confused, “Casey…Stay there. I’ll get you some help,” she didn’t want to kill someone else if she could prevent it. That didn’t stop her from raising the gun again though.

“Casey! Don’t!” she shouted as he started to move towards her more, “Don’t make me!,” once again, there wasn’t really a choice.

She fired, not really aiming from her spot on the floor as she tried to scoot towards the door. The bullet hit his thigh, but it seemed to do little more than slow him for a moment, “C-Casey…” she muttered as he continued to advance. If she could get to her feet, she might be able to outrun him. He seemed unsteady and confused. Not nearly as focused as Dr. Osmund. For all she knew, Casey was going to get worse and she had no idea how long it would take for him to get to that point. Would he have one of those _things_ in his mouth too? Casey didn’t even seem to be in pain from the gunshot.

Luck was on Charlie’s side, it seemed. Casey’s body seemed to shuffle slowly, zombie like, for now. It gave her enough time to scoot out the door and she managed to kick it shut. She had no way of locking it, so she scrambled to her feet and grabbed the top of the nearest filing cabinet. It took a moment, but she pulled it over to block the office door. If this was something curable, at least Casey might be able to be cured.

She gave herself a moment to breath before looking around. Karen’s mangled body and the poor baby, “What the fuck?!” she finally snapped. Her small purse was still in the office, so she shoved the gun into her jacket before taking off.

Charlie didn’t stop running, even darting out into traffic and ignoring the cars that honked at her. She ran up the stairs of her apartment building and didn’t stop till the door was securely locked behind her.

Her body felt numb as she walked over and sat on the edge of her small couch. She was shaking, but she didn’t feel cold. She couldn’t even think.

Her mind was blank.


	2. Chapter 2

It had been nearly a week since the incident at Dr. Osmund’s office and Charlie hadn’t even opened her apartment door once. She was terrified that the police had found her purse in there and were going to track her down. While the gun was hers, it certainly wasn’t registered to her. It was a gift from her family about a year before she moved into the city. Charlie wasn’t entirely sure what the gun laws were. She never paid much mind to those things.

Gun laws aside, she had other things to worry about. Food was down to ramen and instant rice. She could tolerate the tap water, but it didn’t seem to sit well with her stomach. It would have been nice to have some juice or bottled water. Or even one of those water filters.

What hit her the hardest though was when she opened her medicine cabinet and realized that she only had enough in her for today and tomorrow. She knew she could go without them for a few days and technically it wouldn’t kill her to never take them, but she hated to do it. Dr. Osmund was supposed to get her a refill on her prescriptions, but that wasn’t an option now. Phones and the internet were still acting up and even the news wasn’t giving out much information, so she couldn’t even call her pharmacy. 

From what she could see from her windows, people were going nuts. The small shop across from her apartment had been looted a few days ago. Cars were broken into and she heard all manner of fighting going on. At night, there was screaming and terrifying noises. Ones like the ones Dr. Osmund was making.

For once, Charlie was glad that her landlord was paranoid and had bars on most of the windows. Of course, the fire escape was open, but she pushed her dresser up against that one. At least that way she would be able to hear if someone tried to get in through there.

She managed a little sleep each day, mostly during the day. She didn’t mind riding out this disaster in her apartment. Sadly, she just wasn’t prepared for that. If she survived it, she swore she would turn into one of those crazy doomsday preppers. As it stood, she would have to venture out and at least find food.

And medicine.

Her pharmacy wasn’t too far away and it was the middle of the day. She was sure she could make it. Charlie still had her gun and pepper spray. That would be enough. The issue was, was it worth it?

What if the pharmacy was cleared out? Would people take the meds she needed? Surely all the water and bread and such would be gone if it was. She had never stolen anything before, but she had no money. Well, she had a little stashed in her freezer for a rainy day, but certainly not enough. Charlie wasn’t sure she could convince the pharmacist to give it to her for free. Of course, that was based on the idea that it wasn’t already ransacked.

There was no point in mentally fighting herself about it. She needed supplies. She’d leave what money she could and go back another day with more. That assumed that the world wasn’t ending or something. Best she could do was keep as clear a conscious as possible. Especially after killing someone.

That in mind, she grabbed the roll of bills from her freezer, the largest bag she owned, her pepper spray and gun, and headed out wearing her jacket. The streets weren’t bare, but they weren’t nearly as busy as they should have been. Every building, including her own, had busted doors and windows. Glass littered the streets more than usual from the broken car windows and storefronts. It looked so strange to see so few people out in the middle of the day. The few she did see were walking as quick as she was or they were slinking around broken windows looking for stuff. Most didn’t look at anyone else. Just went about their own business.

As she feared, the pharmacy had been raided like everywhere else. The front doors had been pried open and the place was a mess. The registers were tossed to the floor and emptied, little bits of change was scattered across the floor. Shelving units were knocked over and nearly bare. The small refrigerated section had a smell coming from it due to expired foods and the doors being open or broken. Broken makeup bottles stuck to the floor in puddles of their product.

All of the bottled water was gone, but she managed to find one of those drinking bottles with the built in filter. It was small, but it would work. She ignored the things she would normally look through while waiting for her medicine refills. The makeup and cheap pharmacy jewelry. She didn’t need it right now. Instead, she went for the vitamins. It seemed like a good idea to help supplement the poor diet she had going on at the moment. Her next stop was to pick through whatever food remained. There wasn’t much.

All the stuff she would normally go for was already gone or smashed up on the floor. Chips, candy bars, slim jims, and all the other highly processed stuff people loved; all gone. There were a few small bags of expired popcorn that she grabbed. Charlie had never been a terribly picky eater, so she took whatever was left and would fit into her bag.

She dragged an arm full of milk gallons into the bathroom. They were warm and she held her breath while dumping the slightly curdled milk down the sink drain. She gagged a little bit, but she quickly rinsed them out. They would be good for storing extra water in case the water went out the way the phones and internet were.

Last stop was the pharmacy. Like the rest of the place, it had been trashed. As she expected, the pain medications were gone. Charlie didn’t know much about medicine, but she knew what she might need or did need. There were a few bottles of antibiotics that she grabbed, just in case.

It was sort of a good thing she got here after the main looting. All the locks and such were out of the way. Charlie felt a little guilty about taking all of this stuff, but it was easier than she’d thought it would be. It felt so easy to justify it. She was just trying to survive and unlike the original looters, she wasn’t taking anything she didn’t need. And she really did plan on paying for it later.

After picking through the dozens of remaining boxes and bottles, she actually managed to find most of what she needed. Some of it was cheaper, generic brands, but she would rather have something instead of nothing.

“Dammit…” she groaned. The two medications she was concerned with the most weren’t anywhere to be seen. She couldn’t imagine a lot of people taking them, “They have to be here…” she wasn’t giving up. Even if it was just one month worth, she would be happy with that. If it wasn’t here, she would just have to risk going to another pharmacy.

Her eyes fell on the small closet door off to the side. Charlie had seen the pharmacy workers come out of there with prescriptions before. It was a long shot, but she set her bag down anyway and headed over.

The door was closed, but there was damage to the frame. Naturally, she assumed looters. She wondered how much would actually be left in there if others had got there first. There was only one way to know, “Please…” she prayed softly as she pushed the door open.

There wasn’t any light inside. The little light that could get in from the outside didn’t help much. Her fingers fumbled along the wall near the door for a light switch. Maybe there was a pull cord hanging from somewhere, she thought. She stepped into the room slowly. About two steps in, arms up in the air looking for the cord, her feet hit something heavy on the floor. She froze as whatever it was let out some kind of grunted, snorting sound.

Even in the dark, she could make out the human shaped body on the floor, “Oh god,” she groaned before carefully backing out of the room with her hand over her mouth. The door slowly closed and she took a deep breath. People didn’t just sleep on the floor of a closet. And that noise was the same one that haunted her dreams for days now. It was so similar to the noises Dr. Osmund and Casey had made.

Charlie darted around the messy store till she found a cheap flashlight that worked. The want for medicine was greater than her instinct to run away. That’s why she decided to shine a light into the closet instead of just going home. She shined it over the body. It was one of the pharmacy techs. Not one she knew well, but she had seen the woman before. She appeared to be in some kind of deep sleep. Blood stained all over her white lab coat and there was barely any hair left on her head. She was whatever Dr. Osmund had been.

The woman twitched and it grunted again. Charlie quickly brought the light up to the walls. Sure enough, there were shelves of medicine in boxes and bottles. Many of them were scattered around the room and empty, just like the rest of the pharmacy. Unlike the open area, there were still many well placed on the shelves.

Her eyes widened and brightened as she saw the familiar boxes in the back. There were at least three that she could see. Maybe even more behind that. Each box had a month's supply in it. She didn’t see her other medication, but didn’t really care too much to search right now.

All she had to do was toe around the sleeping creature, grab the boxes, and get out fast. Charlie would gather up the courage once she was home to go out to the pharmacy across town to find her other medication some other time. So long as she could get at least one, she would feel like this whole trip was worth it.

She could do this. She was sure of it.

Flashlight on the boxes and with a deep breath, she started. Back pressed to the wall and raised up on her toes, Charlie began to edge her way around the body. She had all kinds of questions, but none that she expected answers for at the moment. Right now, she couldn’t even make herself breath. Eyes fixed on the body in the low light as she moved.

How did this disease spread? Could it be airborne? If so, was she already infected? No. There were far too many still healthy people walking around for that. It had to be in the blood in some way. How it could be transferring so much and so fast, she wasn’t sure. Probably something to do with those things in their mouths.

She was nearly halfway around when the body suddenly moved. It jerked violently and she froze as it raised up for a moment. It glanced around and fell back to the floor, half way between her legs, and proceeded to snort and snore again. Charlie held her breath and stood as still as possible. It’s arm was over the top of one of her feet and it was nestled between her spread legs. She couldn’t move and panic started to set in.

How fast would it get up? Could she get to the door and close it before it could grab her? Charlie wasn’t unfit, but she wasn’t athletic. At least not anymore. It had been a long time since she actually worked out. If she had to describe her body, it would be skinny fat. Someone who was the right weight for their age and height, but lived on junk food and so had a high fat content in their body. The doctor hadn’t been moving very fast, but the space had been small and the situation was different.

Charlie didn’t know how long she stood there, but her legs were tense and they were starting to hurt. It wasn’t until she felt her knees starting to give out that she realized she had made the mistake of locking her knees. Her head felt a little faint and she realized she was going to pass out soon if she didn’t do something. Even relaxing her stance felt dangerous to do.

A noise in the store made her tense even more. What if it was more of these infected people? Or what if it was looters? Charlie wasn’t sure which option was worse. Some looters were just as dangerous. She’d lived in the city long enough to know that. There was a small chance that it was someone like herself who was just trying to rummage for anything they could find that was needed to survive. Charlie could try to call out to them and see what happened, but her voice was stuck in her throat.

Closing her eyes tight, she felt tears starting down her face. More light pouring into the room made her eyes shoot open. She glanced at the door and saw someone standing there. He was a little taller than her and his head was covered with a hood. He was holding what looked to be a rather large gun. Charlie knew guns. She didn’t like them and only kept one for safety, but she knew guns. It was ingrained into her head from her childhood. That was no normal gun.

He lifted his free hand and waved for her to come back to the door, but she shook her head and pointed at the back wall where her medicine was. If he could help her get the pharmacy tech moved, then she could get her medication. That didn’t seem to be something he was interested in. He just motioned his hand more insistently for her to come out. 

Looking back to her medication and then back at the door, Charlie resigned herself to having to do without it. He held out a glove covered hand to her and she had to lean a little to grab it. As soon as their hands touched, he grabbed her tight and pulled fast. She stumbled and fell into his chest. He grabbed her close and pulled her free of the closet door. There was a lot of movement as other hooded men moved into the closet. She could hear the gurgling and groaning of the pharmacy tech. Suddenly, a loud sound filled the whole shop. It reminded her of a nail gun, but ten times louder. There was a squeal and then silence.

The man holding her released his grip and thrust her away fast, “You’re clean. Leave,” he said sternly.

Charlie got a proper look at him and her eyes widened. He was one of those things, but he was somehow different. For one, his skin wasn’t just deathly pale. It was a little gray and marbled. He also had a nose and when his mouth opened, she could see the sharp, pointed front teeth. It reminded her of that old vampire movie. The black and white one that she couldn’t remember the name of right now. His eyes were black and shiny. He also had a nose. The others she had seen from her window didn’t have noses, “You’re…”

“Leave,” he said again.

Her body twitched and she looked towards the front of the store, but her eyes drifted back to the closet. The other hooded men were coming back out and dragging the pharmacy tech’s limp body. The others were dressed in all black military outfits too. This was some kind of team, she realized. Whatever they were, even if they were infected, they were different somehow. She couldn’t see their faces though. Their hoods had screens over them.

“...please. I just need my medicine.”

He looked at her for a moment, “No. It’s not clean.”

If they had the body out and he still considered it unclean, that just confirmed that it had to have something to do with the blood. They had shot the infected woman in there and her blood was bound to be on the floor and possibly the walls, “...please…”

“Out!” he snapped and she jumped.

Charlie ran over to snatch her bag off the floor and took off towards the front door. She didn’t look back as she ran for her apartment. She had tried and what was all that mattered. It wasn’t as if she wouldn’t live without the medication. It would just be uncomfortable. Charlie had a water filter, some bags of food, and empty jugs for water. That would just have to do.


	3. Chapter 3

Things were getting worse and worse. Anyone who attempted to leave the city was shot on sight. It was practically a war zone now. Supply trucks had stopped entering the city and all the trains had stopped running. A few managed to get away on boats, but those were far and few between. Charlie didn’t know anyone with a boat, so she was one of the unlucky ones to be completely stuck.

The sounds were terrifying. Where there had been the occasional grunting noise of some infected person on the street at night before, now it was all the time and everywhere. She barricaded her front door with her couch and chair. She boarded up her bathroom window as best she could with drawers because it was the only one without bars on it since it connected to the fire escape. She made sure one day to poke out of her bathroom window and pull up the ladder for the escape before recovering everything. 

She spent most of her time sitting in the middle of her kitchen floor, hidden behind the counter. It felt like the safest place. She could hear sounds out in the hallway of her apartment building. There were infected people here now too. She kept quiet and moved as little as possible. Charlie made sure not to cook anything, to keep down the scent of food and she unplugged anything that might make a noise. 

Right now, she was sitting on the floor with her gun in her lap and looking at her phone. The electricity was still working, somehow, so she could charge her phone. Not that it mattered. The data and cell service had been down for weeks. It didn’t even show the right date. Next to her, she had a backpack. It had a pack of stale graham crackers, her phone charger, a flashlight, bullets, a small knife, a filter water bottle, matches, a lighter, and a small first aid kit. Her father would be proud that she had remembered to put a pack together and kept it close by.

She wished she could call her dad right now. It had been two years since she last spoke to him. This was one of those times when you realized that as bad as things got just before leaving home, you missed your parents. They had said awful things to each other in the end. It didn’t matter right now that they two of them had meant the things they said. She would regret not saying that she still loved him if something happened to her.

Her head shot up at the sound of scratching at her front door. That had been happening more and more often. She wondered how many of her neighbors were infected. Her landlord hadn’t come by in a long time, not even for the rent. He had either managed to get out of the city or he was one of the people scratching at her door all hours of the day. They knew she was in here. That’s what it felt like. Maybe they could smell her. She didn’t know much about what this illness was or what it did to the body. It was entirely possible that it could make them able to smell her.

Last night, they had started pushing at the door. Even with it locked, they managed to wiggle it and even jar the furniture in front of it. The fact that it was day time out and they were already pushing at the door again meant they were figuring out how to get in. Charlie couldn’t hold out here much longer. She had two options. Lock herself up in her bedroom and cut down the amount of space she had or go out the fire escape and try her luck in finding a new place to stay. The bedroom was the easy option. She could pile her mattress and bedframe against the door with her dresser and hide in the closet. But how much time would that really give her? She’d have no way to replenish her water supply in there or anywhere to relieve herself cleanly. And if, when, they found her there, she would be trapped.

No. Charlie was preparing herself to leave her apartment entirely. She had been here for five years and it was upsetting that it was coming down to this. 

A bang on the front door made her jump a little and she slipped her phone into her back pocket as she stood up, “Time to go…” she said softly as she put her gun into it’s holster and shouldered her backpack. It didn’t seem to matter that she was being quiet. they knew she was in here and just her standing up seemed to rile them up. How many were there? Were all of her neighbors infected? 

They were more aggressive than she had realized as she didn’t even make it out of the kitchen when the door was jarred hard and the chain lock was ripped free of the door frame. Charlie picked up the pace, dropping the idea to be silent, as she ran for the bathroom door. As she slammed it shut, she heard the furniture scraping across the floor and grunting sounds. 

Her bathroom was small. Just a stand up shower, a tiny sink, and a toilet wedged between the sink and the wall. Putting the toilet seat down, she climbed on top of it and started prying the window open, “Come on…not now…” it was stuck. It always did this. It couldn’t just be opened straight up. She always had to wiggle it up. It made a lot of noise and she worked it up as fast she could. The bang on the bathroom door almost made her fall off the toilet seat, “God dammit,” she growled as she wiggled it up halfway, “Stupid...fucking...window…” she had thought to open it beforehand, but feared someone noticing it and coming up.

Charlie gasped as the bathroom door cracked off the hinges, “Get back! I have a gun!” but that didn’t seem to bother them. They had wedged the door and couldn’t just rush through it. From what she could see, there was at least three of them. She had plenty of bullets, but the sound of the gun going off might attract others, “Fuck…” the first managed to get it’s head through the crack and she started tugging harder at the window.

It wasn’t up all the way, but she could still get through. Charlie shoved her bag through first and then started wiggling her way through, kicking her feet off the toilet seat and pushing her way through. If her landlord was alive out there somewhere, she was going to give him an earful for how difficult this fire escape was to use. Behind her, she heard a retching noise and Charlie realized it was that thing that grew in their mouths. It was rearing up to spit it out. Charlie knew it would reach her legs. 

Thankfully, it had poor aim and the thing smacked into the window above her head. It shattered and she kept her head down until the glass stopped falling. As soon as she didn’t feel it falling anymore, she started scrambling back out the window. The glass cut her palms, but it wasn’t enough to stop her. Her pants could stop her though.

“Fuck!” she snapped as she sat halfway out the window. Hands down on the grating of the fire escape and legs flailing still inside her bathroom. Her pants were caught on the window. There was the retching sound again and she screamed as the thing shot out the broken window above her. Whether they were just poor aimers or they were just at an awkward angle in the broken door, she wasn’t sure and it didn’t matter. What did matter was that it slowed them down.

She finally wedged herself free and fell face first onto the fire escape. There was blood all over her hands and now on her face, but she kept going. Climbing to her feet fast and looking into the bathroom. Her stomach sank a little. It was Joanna. Her downstairs neighbor. The older woman was always sweet. Always baking special brownies and telling stories about Woodstock and wearing too much blue eyeshadow. It broke Charlie’s heart to see her this way. Her plan was to just run, but she couldn’t leave Joanna like this. 

Charlie upholstered her gun and aimed it as Joanna reared back to spit that thing out of her mouth again. Before it could release, the infected woman fell backwards. The bullet had nailed her between the eyes. Her body served to block the path of the others that were with her. Charlie felt no need to put them down as she didn’t know them. Instead, she used the time to put her gun away and grab her bag.

She practically slid down the fire escape ladder, hitting the alley ground below hard enough to send a shock up her legs. She pulled the small knife out next and kept it in her hand, ready to use. It was almost nightfall and that was when it could get worse out for her. Charlie had to be ready to defend herself and she couldn’t just keep using a gun.

Jogging, she barely rounded the corner when someone grabbed her from behind. Rather than screaming, she swung her elbow back. It connected with hard padding. Charlie turned fast and thrust forward with her knife, but it glanced off the padding on his shoulder. She only stopped because of who it was. It had been a week since she was at the pharmacy, but that face haunted her whenever she managed to find sleep. It was that thing that had helped her. Behind him was his group of masked and hooded comrades. He reached out fast and grabbed her arm, tugging her forward. Before she could say anything, she realized he was smelling her. His nose twitched a little and he leaned in close to her. He smelled like death and she tried to pull away, “Let me go!”

Above her, she heard the loud nail gun sound and looked up to see one of his comrades busting out her bathroom window fully so he could climb through and make his way down to them as well, “Let me go!” she shouted again, this time pulling back and slamming her foot down into his.

“You’re not infected. Good.”

“Let me go, you freak!” nothing she did seemed to cause him any pain. It was like when she shot Casey in the doctor office. It slowed him down, but it didn’t stop him. Releasing her knife from her trapped hand, she caught it with her free one and managed to bring it up under his arm. That got his attention. It wedged between the padding and she felt it sink in. He let go of her arm and she stumbled back, holding her knife. She was surprised at the state of the knife. It had some kind of white goo on it and she could swear there was a worm of some kind sliding along the blade towards her hand. Instinctively, she dropped it and jumped away from it. A parasite. Was that how this thing was spreading?

“You’re coming with us,” he announced.

“The fuck I am. Fuck off,” she didn’t have time for this. She had to find some new shelter before it got too dark out.

“I wasn’t giving you an option,” the way he talked was strange. It was hollow and deep. Like he was talking from the bottom of a well. To the right person, it would be intimidating, but Charlie had other things to worry about.

“Fuck you,” she adjusted her bag before turning her back to him. If he was going to hurt her, he would have done it by now. 

It was wrong of her to assume that. He didn’t attack her, but the others did. They were a lot faster than she had been expecting and three of them were on her before she could take two steps. One grabbed her from behind, wrapping his strong arms around her and holding her so tight she could barely breathe. A second removed her gun and her bag before picking up her knife from the ground. The last pulled out a black, cloth bag, “No! Stop! What’re you doing?!” she knew what he was doing.

He slid the bag over her head as she thrashed about. She didn’t get to move a lot before something hard hit her on the back of the head and her mind went blank.


	4. Chapter 4

It felt like weeks that she laid on the dirt floor. She spent the first day pounding on the door and screaming for them to let her out. It was hard to count the time in the dark room. There wasn’t a crack of light anywhere. She’d spent a long time walking along the wall, trying to feel for a door. Even though she found one, she couldn’t find a handle on it. This was meant to be a prison room of some kind. All she could smell was the dirt on the floor and the only thing she could hear was herself.

It was a terrible experience and at some point she just laid down in front of the door and cried. She left one of her shoes in a corner and designated that her relief spot since there didn’t seem to be a bathroom of any kind. It was hot in here too. Eventually, she stripped down to her bra and underwear to get some relief from the heat. After a while, she just felt gross. Sticky from old sweat, her hair was grimy, and part of her itched. 

Charlie suspected that there was some kind of vent higher up in the room and that they were gassing her with something. She only knew this because occasionally when she woke up from fitful sleep, there would be a tray of food she would trip over in front of the door. They brought fruit and vegetables that were on the verge of being inedible, warm water, and one time there was some kind of meat. Charlie could have refused to eat it and see if they would let her starve to death, but she had a feeling they actually might. She ate slowly and attempted to stay up as long as she could to see if they would open the door, but a new tray never came until she was asleep. Figuring the door opening would wake her, she figured they were pumping something in the room to put her into a deeper sleep.

There was a sudden change one day. She started pulling her pants back on, because her legs felt cold. Then her shirt. The room was getting colder. They were going from sweltering hot to winter cold as quickly as possible. She ended up curled up crying in a corner while shivering. Cold sweat was just as bad as hot sweat. It still stuck to her and made her feel even more dirty. Were they just keeping her alive as some kind of torture? It wasn’t like she had anything she could give them. She had no money, her family wasn’t worth much, they wouldn’t get a ransom out of her, and she wasn’t the smartest at anything. This was just simple torture for the sake of torturing someone.

When the door did finally open, the light on the other side was blinding. It made her eyes water and she had to close them tight. Her body felt worn and beaten down. Moving was painful. She didn’t even have the urge to rush the door. She just sat on the floor, holding her knees to her chest, and crying softly.

As her eyes cleared up, she saw the one who didn’t wear the face mask coming towards her. He had his hood down and she could see he didn’t have any hair. The marbling on his face extended up over his head and he had long, pointed ears. They were large ears, like a bats. They stuck out of the sides of his head rather far. He walked closer and she pushed up against the wall as he knelt down in front of her, “You need to clean up before you meet Them.”

If her throat didn’t feel like it was on fire, she would have said something. As it was, they barely gave her enough water to make urinating not hurt. Talking was not an option right now. She just let him haul her to her feet and he started pulling her out of the room. Charlie had no reason to resist. She stumbled along, her legs feeling like they were going to turn to jelly. He lead her along a row of doors. The dim lighting didn’t reveal much. It was all very plain, but very scary. She imagined every room behind one of those doors was like the one she had been in. That’s not where it ended though. Not all of the rooms were as soundproof, it seemed. She could hear a large number of people crying out from behind several doors.

Charlie remembered seeing Dr. Osmund using that thing in his mouth on Casey and she realized he had been feeding. That’s why they had all those people here. They were feeding stock. It made her sick and if there had been anything currently in her stomach, she would have thrown it up.

He dragged her into a dimly lit room with a drain in the middle and a shower against one of the walls, “Wash up. Fast.”

The thought of a shower was nearly as good as the thought of a cheeseburger. Charlie stumbled over to it and looked back at him. He was standing in the door like a statue. She managed to find her voice, “Get out,” but he didn’t even acknowledge that he heard her, “I’m not getting naked in front of you.”

“Don’t flatter yourself. Clean up.”

“...at least turn around. Give me some kind of privacy.”

He stared at her for a minute before turning his back to her. Charlie could have run at him, but what was the point? She didn’t know where she was or how to get out. Pissing him off likely wouldn’t help anything. Plus, she really wanted a shower. A nice, hot shower. It didn’t even matter that he hadn’t given her soap or shampoo. Just rinsing would be enough to make her feel a hundred times better.

Stripping fast, she turned the water on and waited a moment with her hand in the cold stream. It never warmed up though. No matter how much she fiddled with the two knobs, the water stayed ice cold, “It’s not going to get hot,” she looked in his direction and he was still turned away from her, “Get on with it.”

A cold shower was better than nothing. At least it was warm in the room. Inhaling deep, she stepped into the cold spray and tried not to gasp. It felt like the time her brother and her had jumped into the lake back home in winter. Like thousands of tiny pin pricks all over her body. Charlie was in no shape to complain though. She rubbed her hands over herself. Washing away lord knows how many days or weeks of sweat, dirt, and the fact that she hadn’t had toilet paper. She kept her back to him in case he decided to turn around. She ran her fingers through her wet hair, hoping to brush it out a little. The tangles were bad and it was going to take a long brushing to straighten it back out. Feeling the water wash through it and over her scalp felt amazing. It didn’t matter that the water was cold. She could see the dirt washing down her legs and into the drain.

“Finish up,” he demanded.

As much as she wanted to ignore him or tell him to piss off, she couldn’t stay in the cold water for too long, “Got any towels?”

“No. Get dressed,” back still to her, he pointed off to the side where there was a shelf with some clothes.

“You can get me clothes, but you can’t get one towel?” Charlie rolled her eyes as she ran over to the shelf. They were similar to what he was wearing, minus the protective padding. Black fatigues, “No bra? You do know I’m a woman, right?” he didn’t respond to that either. She could have put her dirty bra back on, but the thought of it made her cringe. Commando it was. The clothes stuck to her wet body in some places and her wet hair soaked the back of the shirt.

He turned around as she walked up behind him. He went to grab her arm, but she stepped back, “You think I’m going to run away? Where the fuck would I go? I don’t even know where I am. I can walk without your help.”

He stared at her for a moment before turning away and starting to walk. Charlie followed after him. She watched every door and hallway they passed in the hopes of seeing a way that might lead her out of here. Nothing looked even close to leading to freedom. She supposed if anything on the way to where they were going offered a way out, he wouldn’t have let her walk without him half dragging her.

The smell of rotting flesh and old blood hit her nose and she gagged a little. Holding a hand up to her nose, she thought about stopping, but knew he would just grab her if she did. So she kept up with him, “Where are we going?”

“To meet Them.”

“And who is ‘Them’?” it sounded ominous and that didn’t sit well with her, “Why did you bring me...here…” her voice trailed off a little as he lead her into a better lit room.

It was similar to the shower room in the fact that there was a large drain in the center of it. No shower though. Just three stands holding three creatures on them. They looked similar to the one that she was standing next to, but they were nude and they seemed older somehow. They twitched and snorted a lot. They kept their arms crossed over sagging skinned chests. As their hands twitched, she noticed one of their fingers on each hand was much longer than it should have been and had a long claw on the end of it, “Oh fuck no…” she said as she realized the floor around the drain between them was coated in blood.

Charlie turned to run, but he grabbed her around the waist and started hauling her towards the creatures. She realized now that this was one of the reasons they had been torturing her. They wanted to weaken her body so she couldn’t fight as easily. It worked. She could barely flail as he dragged her closer to them, “You will calm down and behave respectfully.”

“Screw you!”

He dropped her hard on her knees over the drain and she felt pain run through her body, “Stand up.”

Slowly, she climbed to her feet and gave terrified glances around herself. Their eyes were closed. They appeared to be sleeping, despite the noise she had made, “Are they...are they gonna eat me?”

“Perhaps.”

That wasn’t comforting in the slightest, “...what do you want with me?”

“This is the one I want,” he didn’t appear to be speaking to her.

Charlie didn't like what he said. It sounded perverted, “Hey, listen, man, I’m not what you think…” she was willing to throw herself under the bus if it spared her some torture and humiliation. Better they kill her now, and swiftly, than slowly and painfully when they realized she wasn’t useful for what they wanted.

“She killed two, held off one, didn’t show fear around another, and injured me. That’s better than most can hope to do.”

Charlie was confused, “Wait...what?” the creatures began twitching more around her and she knelt down a little bit in fear.

“They wish to know more about you.”

That wasn’t what she expected to hear, “Like what? Like my favorite color and shit?”

“What is your background?”

“Background for what?”

“You are being recruited to fight.”

To fight? To fight what? Whatever it was, Charlie wasn’t interested. She had already fought once before and she had no interest in doing it again, “I’m not a fighter. I don’t have a background. My name is Charlie Lornes. I’m from New Hampshire. I got a mom and a dad and three older brothers. I dropped out of high school. I got my GED. I work night shift at a shithole restaurant for under minimum wage. There’s your background. I don’t fight.”

She threw her hands up, “You know what? Just fucking eat me already. I don’t like to play games. I’m not going to do what you want. I’d rather get this over with now instead of later.”

The creatures still twitched, but there was no sound for several long moments, “You’re suitable.”

He reached out and grabbed her roughly, tugging her out of the center of the room, “I told you, I’m not a fighter. I’m not going to fight. Just kill me.”

“You will fight,” he said rather plainly as he half dragged her from the room, “Once you understand what is at stake.”

“Screw you,” Charlie threw herself against him. She doubted it would do much, but it did seem to catch him off guard. So she ran. Or tried to. He was on her fast. Tackling her to the ground and grabbing a fist full of her hair. She crawled a bit as he started walking, dragging her like a bag, and struggled to get back to her feet, “Please, just let me go or kill me.”

The room he brought her too wasn’t too far from the room with the three creatures. He threw her in and she nearly ran into the bed, stubbing her bare toe on the nightstand instead, “Training begins tomorrow,” with that, he closed the door and she ran at it, beating it with her fists once she realized there was no handle on the inside.

After a bit, she gave up and turned to look at the new room. It was small. Barely enough room for the bed and nightstand. It was meant for sleeping and nothing more. The lamp gave off barely enough light to see, but she could clearly see the bag sitting on the end of the bed. Running over, she yanked it open and was surprised to see all of her things inside of it. More surprising was her purse in it too. The purse she had left at the doctor’s office. There was also several boxes of her medication. There was another bag too. That one was filled with tactical gear. Padding and all. Along with undergarments. They were the wrong sizes, but they were there. It was better than nothing.

Climbing over the bed, she searched the wall for any second doors. There wasn’t one, but there was a cooler on the floor. It was filled with bottles of water and protein bars. Again, better than nothing or what she had been getting while she had been in that other room. She sat down on the bed with a few of the bars and a bottle of water while digging through her backpack. She found her cell phone and saw that the charge was dead. Her charger was in there, but she couldn’t find an outlet. That meant she couldn’t even play solitaire offline to pass the time. 

At least this time she had a bed to lay in while she cried.


	5. Chapter 5

Seeing another person, Charlie ran towards him, “You have to get me out of here,” she said fast, clinging to his arm. The Latino man looked close to her age and he was obviously not infected. He was wearing similar tactical gear, but he was human and that’s what mattered, “Please. Please get me out of here.”

“Jesus Christ, Vaun, did you kidnap her too?” the man pulled away from her, but she tried to keep close to him. 

“She is our new Sun Hunter, like you.”

“Man, you can’t kidnap people into this. Not everyone is as open to this shit as I am.”

“You will help train her.”

Charlie glared back at him, “I told you! I’m not a fighter!”

“She has killed two and…” he hesitated for a moment, “...injured me.”

That got a smile from the human man, “Really? You got him? I ain’t even got him yet.”

Charlie didn’t see what was so amusing about the situation, “I knifed him. It was self defense. I’m not a fighter.”

“She has better aim than you. She will be long distance and you will be close combat. You will teach her the basics of close combat in case it comes down to that,” she now knew that his name was Vaun and he liked giving orders, “She has military training. It shouldn’t be difficult.”

“Vaun, man, I’m good with doing this stuff, but I ain’t gonna make her do it.”

She glared at Vaun, “I don’t have military training. I don’t know why you think I do. I told you, I dropped out of high school, got my GED, and I been working the same shitting restaurant ever since.”

“She lies too,” the creature stated plainly.

The other man smirked, “Don’t we all,” Vaun didn’t respond. He just turned and left the room, “So, you got a name?”

“...It’s Charlie…” she wrapped her arms around herself as she looked around. This was a training room. It had a walk around balcony for high ground training, barriers for blocking and hiding, and there were shelves of the strange guns and other gear. It was very basic, but effective. Sometimes the basics were the best way to go.

“I’m Gus. You from the city?”

“Hunts Point,” she looked at the door Vaun had left through. Charlie wondered if she could find her way out of this place. She hadn’t really had a chance to explore, mostly because she had been locked in a room until Vaun came and got her. He let her clean up and shower again, but he didn’t respond to any of her questions. He just gave orders.

“Really? Harlem.”

Charlie looked back at him and glanced him over, “How long have you been here?”

Gus shrugged a little, “Hard to tell. A little bit, at least. You?”

“Not sure. My phone isn’t working, not that it being charged would help much without cell service.”

“It might. They got all their own shit here. I bet they got their own service of some kind.”

Charlie looked back at the door before looking back at Gus again, “I got my phone charger. If I could just find an outlet. I bet we could use GPS if we can get some service here and figure out how to get out of here.”

His laugh surprised her, “And go back to what? Hell? I bet things are ten times worse out there than they already were,” he wasn’t wrong, “We got food, shelter, and weapons in here. Who better to on the good side of than the ones controlling all of this shit?” again, he wasn’t wrong.

“What...what do they want us to fight?”

Gus smiled, “Them. If you haven’t notice, those things are running all over the streets.”

“Why would they fight their own kind? What are they?”

“Not sure what they are, but kind of like vampires, I guess. They drink blood. Those ones on the street, their crazy. Wild. Animals. These ones, these guys, they’re organized. It’s like their two different breeds of the same species or some shit,” in a way, that made sense. Different dog breeds behaved differently in some ways even though they were all dogs. Same with cats, “You really knife him?”

“Hn? Oh, uh, yeah. It was just luck.”

“I dunno. I’ve been training with him since I got here and I can barely glance a punch off him.”

“It was just luck...drop it…” she wrapped her arms around herself again, “Why do they need us?”

“We’re the sun hunters. Day walkers. They can’t go out in the daytime. At least not for long so long as their wear their gear.”

They really were like vampires. Pale, sharp teeth, drinking blood, and no sunlight. Charlie couldn’t believe what she was wearing. It was an infection, but of the more fantasy type. She wanted to tell him he was wrong, but she had seen proof enough of it all, “What about those three ones.”

“Old guys. Don’t know much about them. Vaun is their voice. He does all their work. I think they made him,” that made sense. Charlie still wanted to go home. She didn’t want to be here, “Why they think you got military training?”

She tensed, “I don’t know. I told them I don’t. It’s not my fault if they don’t believe me.”

“Shit, girl, you think I can’t tell a lie when I’m being told one,” he smiled again, “You keep your secrets. I don’t really care. I’m just a gangbanger from Harlem and they picked me too. I think they’ll take any human who can kill a few of them.”

Charlie tried to think of more questions. There seemed to be a lot happening and she wasn’t sure what to believe or what to do, “Those things are old. Why are some going crazy in the streets now?”

Gus shrugged, “Don’t know. Maybe there used to be four of them here and one decided it didn’t like hiding anymore,” vampires taking over the world. It was a bad SyFy movie, “Someone’s gotta keep them in line.”

She stood quietly for a moment, “Well, someone’s doing a terrible job at that. New York is practically gone.”

“Don’t mean we can’t get it back. Just depends on what you’re up to fight for.”

Right now, she hated herself for what she was going to say, “Right,” New York was her home and it was being overrun by these freaks. It had been a long time since she did anything for anyone else.

“So what you gonna do?”

Charlie took a deep breath, “I don’t need you to train me. I...I should probably be...training you…”

His smile widened, “You think you can train me, Chica?”

She rolled her eyes, “It’s Charlie and yes.”

“Why’s that?”

He didn’t give her a chance to answer. He was trying to catch her off guard as he rushed forward and tried to grab her. Charlie grabbed his wrist and twisted it sharply as she yanked him around and wrenched his arm behind his back, “Because I don’t need military training to be raised by a former Navy SEAL, have two rangers for brothers, and a mother who is still a drill sergeant at Fort Jackson. My whole life before coming to the city was military training,” shoving him, she let go of his wrist and he stumbled away from her.

Charlie watched as he rubbed his arm a little before looking up at her, “Damn, Girl, you got some arm strength. That’s kinda hot,” he smirked, “Let’s get this started then.”

She rolled her eyes before looking up at the wrap around walk space. Vaun was standing there watching them. Charlie narrowed her eyes at him and he turned to disappear wherever he’d come from, “Yeah, sure, let’s get started. Just like a party.”


	6. Chapter 6

There were hours when Vaun would come and half drag her to the training room where she would spend time either training with him or Gus. Usually Gus. Once they were finished, she was lead back to her room and locked in until the next training session. She didn’t have anything to read, her phone was still dead, and while Gus seemed chatty, Vaun was generally silent. It was boring and she found herself sleeping more and more. What else was there to do?

Right now, she was laying on her bed and staring at the ceiling. She had been back from training for some time, but she couldn’t seem to fall asleep. Charlie’s body felt physically exhausted, but she couldn’t get her mind to realize that it was time for rest. Every inch of her body was sore. That’s how it was any time she trained with Vaun. He pushed her hard. He barked orders and nothing more. Tonight had been stressful. She was starting to feel depressed and anxious. 

So she blew up at him. He barked an order and Charlie barked back. It was out of character for her, but it felt good to do it. He promptly ended the training session without a word and did his usual dragging back to her room.

That’s where she had sat for how know how long.

The sound of the door opening made her sit up fast. It was too soon for training again. She hadn’t even slept yet. She was surprised to see Vaun step in and close the door behind him. How he planned on getting out, she didn’t know, but she planned on watching to see if she could recreate it, “What do you want?” she snapped a little.

The rat like vampire walked over and set down a small bag on the end of her bed before pulling over the small chair that had appeared in here after her second training session. He settled down and motioned for her to open the bag. Charlie was hesitant, but she reached for it, “What’s this?” not that she expected him to answer. He never responded.

Charlie was surprised by what she saw in the bag. There was a portable charger, candy bars, some outdated magazines, and some pads and tampons. Charlie felt her cheeks heat up, “Is this supposed to be a joke? Give the girl tampons and chocolate.”

Vaun didn’t react, not that she expected him to, “When you cycle, you won’t be able to leave your room. I’m moving you to a room with a bathroom. You will need to keep clean and changed often,” Charlie didn’t know whether to feel grateful or offended, “You’ve been here a month,” had it really been that long? She had a hard time believing it, “It’s bound to happen soon.”

She was going to kick herself for saying it later, but she wanted to set the record straight, “That’s not necessary. I don’t...I don’t menstruate. Not all women do,” Charlie held the bag back out to him, “I don’t need this stuff,” though the charger and magazines would be nice, “I’m sure if you know as much about me as you seem to think you do, then you should have already known that.”

“I don’t assume to know anything about your kind.”

“Women?”

“Humans.”

Vaun was different from the others. The others all stood in a line along the walls. They didn’t talk, they didn’t move, they didn’t do anything. She supposed their job was to stand there like statues until Vaun gave an order. They seemed completely mindless. It wasn’t just a personality difference though. There was a physical difference. Vaun seemed more human. The others were like shells, “Were you ever human?” that seemed a rational question. She hadn’t learned much about what these things were, but they could infect people and turn them into whatever it was they were. Gus called them vampires, but she was starting to think there was more to it than that.

“No.”

“So you were born like this?”

“Yes.”

“Why are you telling me this?”

“Because you asked.”

“So all I have to do is ask and you’ll give me an answer.”

“Yes.”

Getting tired of holding the bag up, she set it back down on the bed. Vaun wasn’t going to take it back, it seemed, “What are you all?”

“Don’t know.”

That was an unsatisfying answer. Whatever Vaun and the others were, they seemed to have a hierarchy. Those three were on the top, Vaun below them, and his team below him. Where did those crazy ones in the city belong in the ranking? Wild ones who didn’t know their place or maybe a different breed altogether? Charlie wasn’t sure which answer she felt was the better option. She could have left it there, but Vaun seemed to be in what could be considered a chatty mood. She should use the chance to get as much out of him as she could, “How long are you all going to keep me here?”

“As long as we need to.”

“What are you training me and Gus for?”

“To fight.”

“To fight what? Your kind.”

“Yes. The ones who have got out of hand.”

Charlie wasn’t sure how to feel about this. She would say that it wasn’t her fight, but those things were attacking people. It was a fight that those who were capable of fighting should fight. Just because she didn’t like doing it, didn’t mean she couldn’t. She had already proven to Gus that she was a better shot than him and just as, if not more, capable in hand to hand. She could have asked more questions about what it was they were going to do, but something else popped into her mind instead, “What happens to me and Gus when the fight is over?”

Vaun was silent for several minutes. Staring at her, unblinking, with those black eyes. For a moment, she thought he might have fallen asleep with his eyes open, but he eventually responded, “You will be released and compensated.”

“Compensated? How?”

“What do you want?”

She looked at him curiously. This had to be a trap somehow, “...what am I allowed to ask for?”

“Whatever you want.”

Charlie was the one to go quiet this time. She didn't want to believe him. People didn’t just give away things. Then again, these weren’t people. Those three were obviously old and they had the means to run this facility. It was hard telling what their resources were, “...I want my medical bills for the rest of my life taken care of, no matter what they are.”

The response she got was not what she expected, “Anything else?”

She hesitated, “Pay for me to go back to school.”

“Is that it?”

A thought crossed her mind, “What did Gus ask for?”

Vaun didn’t seem to have care for privacy, so he told her, “An mansion, two billion a year, and no taxes.”

Charlie stared at him like he was joking, but she realized Vaun didn’t have the ability to joke, “Oh,” it at least gave her an idea of how resourceful these things were. They had money and connections. Lots of them and they were willing to use them to get what they wanted. Yet their money wasn’t enough alone to stop whatever was happening with those wild ones, “...just the medical bills and the schooling.”

He tilted his head a little and she watched his expression change just a little. She realized he was looking at her with curiosity. Charlie hadn’t thought he was capable of showing any kind of emotion or feeling in anyway. Yet there it was, “Very well.”

He stood up from the chair and Charlie realized that he was done conversing with her. He had done what he came in here to do and now he was going to leave, “Wait. I...I have another question.”

“Quick.”

Charlie nodded, “Why are you different from the other ones?”

At first, she thought he might answer her, but he didn’t. He started for the door anyway and she slumped back onto her bed. He’d left the bag. While she had no use for some of the items, she was going to use that portable charger and finally get her phone running. She was starting to pull it out when he spoke again. He was standing at the door and staring at it, keeping his back to her, “I was born the way I am. They were not.”

Charlie stared at the back of his head for a moment. She couldn’t think of what to say. Not that it mattered, as he took his leave before she had a chance to collect herself. Even worse, she hadn’t bothered to watch how he got out of the room.


	7. Chapter 7

Walking into the training room with Vaun, she was surprised to hear grunting and snorting. The others on his little team were never involved in the training sessions. Other than him, she hadn’t had any interaction with the others since she got here. She saw them on occasion as they walked to and from the training room, but they were always like statues. They seemed completely mindless. Were they going to start training with the team and not just Vaun? Though Gus didn’t seem to be around either.

When they finally entered the room, she realized it wasn’t his team. Chained to one of the barrier blocks were two of them, but they weren’t Vaun’s. They were wearing regular clothing and looked dirtier. She realized these were some of the ones from the street, “What’re we doing?”

“Hand to hand training. You already know how to shoot something.”

“I already know how to fight hand to hand too.”

“Not against one of them.”

“I fight you.”

He grunted a little, “You train with me. You don’t fight me. I don’t fight like them and they don’t fight like me,” it was the most he had ever said to her in one breath and he wasn’t done, “They have two goals. To drink from you and to turn you. Even if they dismember you, they consider what they did a success,” Charlie had tried to learn more about his kind, but it was difficult when Gus knew so little and Vaun talked so little and the others were completely silent, “Once you’re stung, you’re theirs. One scratch and that’s it. If their blood touches your skin, that’s it. It’s that fast.”

Charlie stared at him. She had figured out that it was some kind of parasite. She remembered the worm she had seen on her knife when she stabbed him. But she hadn’t realized that it was really that dangerous. One scratch, “So how to we fight them hand to hand?”

“Quickly. Close combat can be used with a knife or a sword, you just have to be careful of the white covered blades,” it took her a moment to understand what he meant. The blood on her knife had been white and goo like. That was where the worms must live in their bodies, “With hand to hand, you want to get in close and take them out as quickly as possible. Don’t give them a chance to attack, if possible.”

Charlie understood that, but she didn’t understand how he expected her to do it, “I still don’t understand how to do it.”

He handed her a pair of gloves. They were made of the same material as the training gear, “It won’t completely protect you. They can still pierce it, but it will give you a chance to keep from being infected. Their bodies are more fragile than they look. The infection weakens it.”

“Really?” this seemed as good a time as any to probe and get as much information as she could.

“Yes. It will take several months before the body adapts enough to regain its strength from the harsh transformation. Even then, these common ones are still weak. They run on the thought of feeding alone.”

“Like a zombie?”

“Somewhat.”

That made sense, “What are their weaknesses?”

“Other than the sun, they don’t tolerate the cold well. Our bodies run hot and extreme cold can make them sluggish. It stiffens their muscles and joints.”

Charlie thought for a moment, “It’s almost winter, isn’t it?”

“Yes,” which made it the perfect season to fight back, “The neck waddle is fragile. With a decent push, the average human can get their hand through it. You grab the stinger and pull it clean out of the body.”

Just the thought of it made her squeamish, “Has Gus done this?”

“Yes. Now it’s your turn to learn,” Charlie wasn’t sure she could do this. They still looked somewhat human. They still had some hair on their heads and the color wasn’t completely gone from their skin. They thrashed about against their chains. They couldn’t move away from the blocks they were attached to. They had blindfolds on too and muzzles over their mouths, “I’ll show you.”

Vaun started to walk towards one of them, but she panicked, “Wait. No. I...I can’t,” it was one thing to have sparring matches or even to defend herself, but this was wrong. She couldn’t kill these things with her bare hands and she couldn’t watch it be done either.

He looked at her and she tensed. She expected him to bark an order that she would snap back at, but it didn’t happen, “You can. Because if you don’t, they will kill you and that is if you’re lucky. If you’re unlucky, they will bite and run. You will feel sick for the first few days. Throwing up, fevers, hallucinations, and the like. Then your body will begin to change. Your skin will he softer, more tender, your genitals will change and disappear,” which made her go wide eyed, “But you won’t care. It will seem natural to you, so you won’t seek help. You’ll hole up in the darkest place you can find to sleep. When you throw up, you’ll think it’s bile, but it’s really just your organs being liquified and forced out. Breathing will be difficult as your lungs change, but you won’t feel out of breath. It is just your body learning how to breath without them,” he stepped closer, “Then you’ll stand up one day and all you’ll be able to do is listen to the voice in your head telling you to feed. It won’t be your voice, but you’ll know you have to follow it. That you have to do as it says. You’ll crave something, but you won’t know what until you see it.”

“...stop it…”

“No,” he growled, “You’ll come across someone in the streets. They’ll think you’re sick and they might try to help you. Maybe it’s a small child who says they can go get their parents.”

“Stop it.”

“You’ll feel it moving in the waddle of your throat. The muscles contracting to slide it up into your mouth. Your body will do it all on it’s own. You won’t even have to think about it. You’ll let it out and sink it into their tiny throat. Feel the rush of warmth as the blood flows through. It won’t be satisfying though. It’ll never be enough to be satisfying. You will drain them dry, but you’ll still be hungry.”

“Stop it!”

“No!” he snapped and stared her down, “Because when you’re done, you’ll walk off to find more food. But that child, they will lay there on the ground, dead, for hours...until they aren’t dead anymore. Until they wake up and suddenly feel feverish. This is what they will do to you.”

Charlie crossed her arms and stared down at her feet. She wanted to believe that he was trying to guilt her into this, but she knew he wasn’t. He didn’t have the emotional range to do that. He was saying it because he believed it to be true, “I just…”

“If you want to leave, we will let you leave. You can fend for yourself and hope for the best. Or you can stay and learn how to fight them and possibly save a lot of your kind.”

Again, it wasn’t guilt. She firmly believed he would let her go at this point. He had no interest in training someone who didn’t want to be trained for this. She couldn’t look him in the face. She just kept looking at her feet as she motioned towards the chained infected ones, “Show me.”

Vaun didn’t comment on it and she was grateful for it. He switched back into work mode and turned his back on her. Charlie looked up and watched as he walked up to one of the chained creatures. He didn’t move to unchain them. This was just a demonstration to show her how to do it. Practical application would come another day, she was sure, “You need to get one hand under the chin. As high up as you can to expose as much of the throat as possible,” he jammed his hand under the creature’s chin and it squealed. The sound of it made her flinch.

“You have to hold it tight. If you apply enough pressure, the stinger can’t release from it’s mouth,” it gurgled loudly. Like it was trying to attack, but it couldn’t. Even if it could, the muzzle would have stopped it, “With your other hand, thrust hard into the nape of the neck. Right here, where the waddle is the reddest,” Charlie finched harder and tried not to throw up as Vaun demonstrated.

His gloved hand came up and thrust forward quickly. It pushed through the reddish skin on the creature’s neck. It didn't seem to be in pain though. It was angry. It thrashed about, wanting free. These things barely felt anything, it seemed. Charlie didn’t want to keep watching, but she couldn't look away. It made the most disgusting sound as Vaun started pulling his hand free of it’s throat. He had a firm grasp on the internal appendage. The creature thrashed and squealed as he released it’s chin and started to step back fast. He held onto the long stinger and she watched with wide eyes at how long it was. It was longer than she was tall.

Her eyes scanned it as more and more appeared from the hole in it’s throat. It looked like a long tube with a bulb at the top and at the bottom. They looked like lungs. Charlie realized that it didn’t get rid of all the organs in the human body. Some of them were repurposed. Part of her was fascinated with what this parasite did, but she was still disgusted.

As it pulled free completely from the creature’s body, the body went limp. She realized it was dead. That stinger wasn’t just a feeding tube, it was the creature’s whole life. Or rather, that tube was the creature. The human body was just a shell to protect it. Without the feeding capability, the shell just died.

Vaun walked over to her, dragging the long appendage with him. As he got closer, she saw the gloves were covered in the white worms. They stood out against the black fabric. She tensed and took a step back, “What about the gloves?”

“Shake them clean and remove them with your knife. Keep both your under shirt and top shirt sleeves tucked into them. Same for your pants into your boots. Sun Hunters have survived fighting them for many years before the invention of protective fabrics,” that was telling. So she and Gus weren’t the first. Charlie jumped a little as he dropped the stringer on the floor in front of her booted feet, “Your turn.”

Charlie looked him in the eye. He didn’t blink. It was unnerving, “Okay…”

She pulled her sleeves down as far as she could over her hands before tugging the gloves on. She pulled the straps around her wrists tight. Probably tighter than she needed to, but it felt safer that way. Better to have numb hands than to be one of them. Slowly, she started towards the second one, “Why are they blindfolded?” was it so she didn’t have to look them in the eyes and possibly see the human they once were?

“Because he can see through them.”

No the answer she was expecting, “What do you mean?”

“The one who made them, he can see through their eyes. He knows they are here, but without being able to see, he won’t be able to find out where they are. He knows what they know. The less they see, the safer we are.”

Charlie didn’t understand. This was all still a little jarring for her. What he was saying, it didn’t make sense. She could accept that there were parasites that could alter the form of the host and even understood that there were creatures who fed on blood for a number of reasons. But what he was saying sounded like some kind of psychic link. Charlie didn’t believe much in fantasy stuff like that. She tried to tell herself that it was like bees or something. That it was pheromones or something else she had seen on Animal Planet. But that didn’t have to do with the eyes. The fantasy aspect was just a little too much for her to process right now, so she pushed it out of her mind for the moment. She would deal with that when she was laying alone in her bed with nothing to do until the next training session.

Instead, she focused on the thing in front of her. It was about her height and wearing the stained and dirty remains of a pink dress. What hair was left on its head was red. It was hard to judge an age. The body was badly deformed at this point. The skin sagged, like all the fat that might have been there was suddenly sucked out. Like a deflated balloon. It was hard not to think about who she might have been. Hard not to think about what her last moments before turning into this thing might have been.

Charlie tried to think of this as humane. That it was torture to let her keep living as a shell for this parasite. She remembered her dog, Ally. Her parents had brought her home when Charlie was three as a puppy. When she was fifteen, Ally started acting strange. Her parents thought it was just old age. But then she stopped eating, so they took her to the vet before her regular vet checkup. The vet told them she had tumors. Not just a few small ones that could easily be removed. There were a lot of them. Her parents were never ones to sugar coat things. They told her bluntly that sometimes it was the humane thing to do in putting something down.

This woman deserved to have her body put to rest.

“What are you going to do with the bodies?” Vaun didn’t answer right away, “What are you going to do with their bodies, Vaun?”

“They will be burned.”

At least there wasn’t just some pit somewhere that they would be tossed into. Burning seemed appropriate enough.

Taking a deep breath, she reached out and grabbed under the other woman’s chin. The creature squealed and thrashed. Despite the body being degenerated, it was still strong, “Grip harder,” Vaun instructed. Her gloved fingers pressed into the throat and she could feel the muscles working. The skin was soft and doughy. She could feel the stinger trying to force its way past her clenched hand, so she clenched harder. It didn’t appear to have trouble breathing, but she figured that’s because it didn’t breath. 

“Thrust your other hand hard into the nape of the neck,” he had already given her the instructions earlier, but seemed to think she needed reminding. It was actually a little reassuring to know that Vaun was still there.

Reaching up, she ran her fingers along the flushed skin at the nape of the other woman’s neck. Even with the gloves on, she could feel that it was different from her own neck. The skin moved more and it was semi-translucent. Like stretching out bubble gum, “Now.”

Vaun was getting irritated with her slowness.

Charlie took another deep breath and pulled her hand back. She thrust it forward fast and clenched her eyes shut at the squealing sound.


	8. Chapter 8

The sound of the door opening made her sit up fast. Vaun was standing in the doorway. Swinging her legs over the side of the bed, she started pulling her boots on when he walked in and sat down in the chair. She watched him curiously. He didn’t usually come in. Just the time he gave her the bag. He didn’t say anything as she laced up the boots and grabbed her knife off the table, “Training?”

“No.”

“Then what?”

Charlie noticed that he had left the door open. She could have tried to run, but she had seen him fight and knew he could likely run her down. Or he would just shoot her. He wouldn’t have just left the door open by mistake. Vaun didn’t seem to make mistakes. This was intentional for some reason. Charlie wasn’t about to take the bait and make a mistake of her own. 

“You asked why I was different from the others.”

“Yeah. You said you were born like this and they weren’t.”

“My mother and father were chosen to create me. It was all done very clinically. Mother was well aware of what was going to happen to her and me. She was turned after the pregnancy was confirmed,” Charlie wanted to say something, but she feared saying anything at all. If she spoke, moved, or even flinched, he might stop talking. This was more than she had expected to hear from him about anything.

“There have only been six of us born like this. We are turned in the womb. I am the sixth. The fifth, my brother, in some way, is in Europe right now. He is much older than me, but he was there when I was born. Ripped from my mother’s womb because she didn’t have the natural ability to give birth anymore. The process killed her. My brother tried to take me. He knew what they planned to do to me. He’s not very...receptive to them.”

He had a brother. She assumed not a biological one. They were brothers in being what they were and there being so few of them, “They got to me first. They infected me.”

Charlie couldn’t not question now, “But weren’t you born infected?”

“No. My mother was infected. The placenta protected me from the worms. I was one of them, but I was not infected. I was not connected to their mind. They wanted a daywalker like my brother, but one that could be loyal to them. Those born like I am have certain advantages. We can tolerate the sun a bit, we can speak without their permission, and we control our own minds. Our bodies do not contain the ability to infect either.”

Charlie had to speak up again, “But I saw a worm, when I stabbed you.”

He nodded, “I do have the worms, but I was not born with them. We can be infected too. It just does not change our bodies much. They turned me when I was born. My brother knew what they intended to do, but he did not make it in time to prevent it from happening. It connects me to them now. They can command me when they want to,” mind control. Charlie was starting to come around to the idea of how strange this all really was. Mostly because of the last training session.

It had been more intense. It was her first time dealing with the wild ones without them being restrained in some way. She took out two and was going for the third. It ran up on her, but stopped suddenly. It’s eyes went red and it said her name. Vaun took it out with his gun from up on the walkway. She had tried to ask about it, but Vaun wouldn’t discuss it. He lead her back to her room as usual and left her there until now.

“I am still myself when they sleep, but…” he hesitated, “...but there is nothing to me when they sleep. I have been raised alongside them. They have been my entire life. I have known nothing but serving them. I am their voice, their custodian, and their guardian.”

That was somewhat sad to hear, “Wouldn’t you like to be more than that?”

“No. The infection changed me. It took away whatever I should have been and made me into what they needed me to be.”

This was all very strange and she wasn’t sure how to feel about it, “Why are you telling me all this? Did you have this little talk with Gus too?”

“No. He doesn’t know.”

“Then why are you telling me?”

“You’re not afraid to be who you’re meant to be. I never wonder what my life could have been like or should have been. I never worry over what sort of person I could be or want to be. I don’t want to be what I am, but I don’t mind being what I am. You were not happy with who you were and you have worked to become who you want to be. All you asked for in compensation were things that would help you along that path to becoming a better version of yourself. I respect that.”

Charlie couldn’t help but to laugh a little. It seemed to catch him off guard and he tensed, “Sorry. I just...anyone respecting me must be out of their minds. I haven’t done anything respectable. I dropped out of school, ran away from home, bought an identity off with money I made from prostituting myself, and I’ve been living a lie for years.”

“But you did it to better yourself. You removed yourself from a home that didn’t understand you and suppressed you. You did the hard, dirty work that you needed to. You had a new home, you had a job, you were taking care of yourself. It will never be easy for you, but you are resilient and willing to keep at it. That’s respectable.”

She hard trouble figuring out what to say. When she left home, her parents had thought she was just going off to blow off steam. She wondered how long they actually looked for her. Her father had called her a freak and her mother said it was against god’s will. That was the last conversation she had with them. She didn’t go home that night, “...That’s...that’s really nice of you to say...thank you. Can I ask why you’re saying it?”

He looked down for a moment and seemed to be contemplating his words, “We’re moving out tomorrow. What we’ve been preparing for, it’s going to start.”

“Oh.”

“After tomorrow, you will be released from your duty here and provided access to your compensation. I just...I wanted you to know that I respected you, before you left.”

Charlie felt her face heat up a little. It was embarrassing to hear things like that. People didn’t talk that way to her and to hear it from him of all _people_ was strange. It was a little flattering too, “I’d say the same thing, but you did kidnap me off the streets,” she meant it as a joke, but he didn’t so much as crack a smirk, “Sorry. You’re not a bad...whatever you are. I mean, you’re not running around the streets sucking people dry, so yeah. Sorry. I’m going to stop talking about it now...What’s the actual mission?” this is what she and Gus had been kidnapped for.

“I will explain to the both of you tomorrow. Get rest.”

He climbed to his feet and started out the door, “Good night, Vaun,” she called after him, but he only paused for a moment before continuing on.

It wasn’t until she had settled back down on the bed that she realized he’d left the door open. She sat staring out of it for a long time from her bed. She could walk out. This wasn’t a trap. He was giving her a chance to leave. Charlie was sure of it. He had told her once before that she could leave and now he was giving her the chance to do it. Part of her was sure that if she did leave her room, she would find a lot more doors open that weren’t before. Doors that would lead her out of this facility.

What would she get from doing that? What would leaving now earn her? If this went well, she would be able to get everything she had hoped for the past ten years. Not only that, but she would be helping a lot of people. They might never know she had helped them. Charlie had a feeling that keeping all this a secret was part of the condition to receive her compensation. Still, she would know and wasn’t that all that was important? Help didn’t have to be acknowledged for it to mean something. She would know and that’s all that needed to know.

Sighing, she rolled onto her side, turning her back to the door, and tried to get some sleep.


	9. Chapter 9

“So what’s the plan, Vaun?” Gus asked as they mulled around in what looked to be a parking garage. Charlie didn’t bothered trying to remember the way they got here. If things went well, she wouldn’t even be coming back here. Or at least not for long. 

Both of them were in their full gear. Both had guns, knives, and extra gloves. She felt strangely calm about it, “It would be good to know.”

Vaun was standing at the back of a van, instructing his team into the back of it. They were all hooded and masked, which meant it was daylight out. While he needed a hood, she had learned from their conversation that he did have some natural protection from the sunlight. Maybe not entirely, but some.

“It’s simple, but it won’t be easy,” he stated as he loaded the last one up into the van and started over to them, “We will be going to the Stoneheart Group building. We will infiltrate and move to the penthouse.”

“Stoneheart? Why?”

“Because Eldritch Palmer is the backbone of the attack.”

“You can’t be serious,” she almost laughed, “Eldritch Palmer?”

Gus looked between the two of them, “Who’s this guy?”

Charlie glanced at him, “You don’t know who Palmer is? One of the richest men in the world. Owns like...everything,” her eyes went back to Vaun, “He’s really behind all this?”

“He is. Without his assistance, none of it would have happened.”

“So what are we going to do?”

Vaun stood a little straighter and looked at the two of them, “We’re going to kill him. Once he is out of the way, their assistance will be cut off and we will choke them out of the city. Without him to help them move about, they can’t continue to advance. They will be bottled up and we will eliminate them.”

It was hard not to stare at him, “Wait...No...Palmer isn’t one of those things. He’s not one of your kind,” it seemed obvious to say, but she had to say it, “He’s a human. An old man in a wheelchair. You’ve...you’ve been training us to fight monsters. Palmer isn’t a monster. Even if what you say is true, he’s a human. We can’t kill a human.”

“Speak for yourself, Chica,” Gus snorted, “If we got to take out some old dude to make this stop, then so be it.”

Charlie stared at him in disbelief, “You can’t mean that. He’s like eighty years old. Even if he will put a stop to all of this, why all the training? Why all the kidnapping?” she pointed at Vaun, “You locked me up in a room for fuck knows how long, making me piss in a corner, no light, no fresh air, and treating me like some a prisoner. Despite that, I still went along with your training shit. Making me believe that we were going to be fighting monsters to save humanity. But no. It’s an old fucking man that you want to off.”

Vaun took a step towards her and she tried not to show any fear about it, “Yes. He is an old man, but he is resourceful. He will be well guarded. This is to save your kind. Without Palmer, they fail, but only so long as we act now. If we wait too much longer, taking out Palmer won’t be enough. They are in a vulnerable position right now. If you want to leave, then leave.”

He had made that offer to her more than once. She hadn’t accepted it yet, but this time it was the most tempting. Could she kill another human? She justified killing the wild ones in training because she told herself that they weren’t human anymore. That some parasite had taken up residence in a human shaped shell. She was doing them a service by putting them down. Palmer was just an old man. 

Charlie just couldn’t shake the feeling that there was no right option. Say yes, go with, and know forever that she had helped kill an old man. Say no, leave, and risk knowing they might fail and things will only get worse. If what Vaun said was true, this could be the end of it. Kill one man and save thousands. Could she live with the blood on her hands? Even if she went with and refused to actually fight or hurt any humans, she would still be enabling the ones that were. That marked her just as much as it did them.

How many had already died because of Palmer’s actions though?

“I’ll go. So long as you’re positive that Palmer’s death will end this.”

“We are.”

She nodded lightly and looked over at the van, “Okay. I’ll...I’ll do it,” she would deal with her moral issues later. 

There was no thanking her or even acknowledging her choice, not that she expected Vaun to, "We will go through the maintenance entrance. You and Gus will pose as workers to get access to the maintenance elevator. It goes to every floor, including the penthouse.”

“You really think it that easy to get into a place like that?” Gus chimed in.

“Yes,” Vaun pointed into the front of the van, “Uniforms and badges. Once we’re in the penthouse, we abduct Palmer,” which meant they weren’t going to kill him there. He was going to be killed somewhere else, “We have to be quick,” which was a given.

“Sure thing,” she muttered.

Vaun left them to join the rest of his team in the back of the van. She followed Gus up to the front and he tossed her one of the Stoneheart uniforms. He started stripping off his gear, but she pulled her uniform on over hers, “Don’t want me to see you?” he smirked, “I saw you pull a stinger out of one of those things yesterday. Trust me, I ain’t looking at you like that.”

“Just like to stay prepared. We don’t know what we’re walking into,” to which he shrugged as they climbed into the truck.

They spent the drive discussing the plan, but her mind kept wandering. She was surprised when they made it out of the garage to find that they had actually been underground this whole time. Right under an abandoned lot. It seemed almost cliche. They were even still in New York. It took her a few minutes of them driving to realize that they weren’t actually all that far from Manhattan. It was strange to think that she was still so close to home. 

It was also hard not to think about tomorrow. She was going to leave New York. It had been a long time since she made the decision to start her life over and she was starting to feel like it was time to do it again. Maybe somewhere more south this time. With the money she was getting from this, she could finally become the person she was always meant to be. No more crappy restaurant job, no more recognizing an old client and feeling embarrassed, no more worrying about her family finding her, and all she had to do was help kidnap Eldritch Palmer.

Maybe she would reach out to her family. At least her mother. Just to start with. Just to see if they were okay. It had been a long time since she spoke to them. They had to know what was happening in New York. Maybe knowing that she had been here during it all would be enough for them to see that it didn’t matter what she was doing with her life and that it only mattered that she was their daughter. Charlie decided that she had to at least try. People could change. She was sure of it. If she wasn’t, then there was no hope for her either.

The Stoneheart building loomed in front of them as Gus drove them around the back to the maintenance entrance, “This ain’t gonna work.”

“Shut up, yes it will. I’m black, you’re mexican, and Palmer’s a rich, old, white-guy. They’ll expect him to hire people like us to clean up his place.”

Gus snorted, “Rich old white dudes are the root of all evil?”

“In this case, yes,” Charlie knew the evils of the world. She was sure Gus did too. She tried to keep an open mind most of the time. She told herself that evil was everywhere. There was no one cause of it in the world. It didn’t matter if there was one thing that caused it more than others, because evil was evil. What she was doing was evil. The fact that Palmer had assisted in taking lives didn’t change the fact that she had made the decision to take a life today. There were always areas of gray, but there were a lot of shades of dark gray in the world and hers was getting darker by the minute.

Charlie tried to relax as the guard started giving them a hard time, “Tengo trabajo que hacer, hombre!” when it doubt, make them uncomfortable by bringing out the foreign language. It was sad how well it worked. The guard was obviously put off.

She leaned over across Gus’s lap, “Listen, we don’t get in there, you get to explain to Mr. Palmer why his penthouse is a mess. You wanna do that?” she snapped loudly. Get loud. Make them uncomfortable. Be confident, “I’m calling our boss. What’s your name?” she pulled out her half dead cell phone. The portable charger had run out of juice yesterday and she had been trying to reserve what was left. She was surprised to see her cell service bars were up. Phones were working again.

“Okay, okay, okay. Sorry. Listen, don’t do that. Just...next time...make sure you have your paperwork with you.”

“Lo tienes,” Gus said with a smile.

They didn’t say anything to each other as they backed the truck up into the garage. They looked around before getting out quickly and opening the back of the van. Vaun and his team were all sitting like statues. They waited quietly as she and Gus unloaded a steam cleaner and a cleaning cart. Those would account for any change in the weight on the elevator if anyone was monitoring that. She went into the elevator first and swore at Gus in spanish. He swore back loudly. Rolling her eyes, she shoved him out of the way and he knocked into the cart, causing the broom head to block the camera that they could see. It wasn’t the best option, but it was the least obvious one. 

Vaun and his team were quick. He hadn’t brought all of them with him. It was just the two of them, Vaun, and three of his team. They were fast at climbing up the elevator wall and through the emergency hatch. They would ride until they got close to the top like that. Once they were near the penthouse, they all figured it didn’t matter what people saw on the camera. It would be too late to stop them at that point.

Her heart was pounding as they rode up. Neither of them said anything. She pulled her phone out and looked at the signal bars. Full bars. She didn’t know her parents numbers and they weren’t in her phone. She did remember the family email though. It was just their last name, the number one, at their internet provider. Because her parents were basic like that. They weren’t fond of the internet and it was hard to tell when they would even see the email if they were okay.

Still, she made it short and quick. 

_Call me. - charlie_

It made her heart pound and she wished for a second that she could unsend it. This needed to be done though. Part of starting her new life was finally tying up all the messy ends of her old one.

She and Gus moved to the back of the elevator as the hatch opened above them and the team started crawling back in. The three from the team stood up front, guns out, ready to go. Vaun stood in the back with them. She was between Gus and Vaun. The three in front had removed their hoods for the first time. They looked like the crazy ones they had been training with, but cleaner. They were focused and ready to work.

The elevator jerked to a stop, “Let's do this,” Gus said and she nodded as she pulled out her handgun and raised it at the ready.

The doors opened and the three up front went out first. They rushed out and made a line for the three of them to come out behind. The penthouse was finely furnished. It was beautiful with marble and tiles. Everything was very well finished and it made her a little angry. If Palmer had caused all of this, what was his reasoning? He had all of this and all the money in the world. Why was he hurting so many people? The anger was useful in keeping her focused as they moved further into the room.

The main area was a large, circular space. There were a few doors that lead into other rooms, but this was the main area. She looked over at Gus and he seemed confused. The team had spread out around the space. Vaun was a few feet from her as she moved closer to one of his team members.

“Where is he?” Gus finally spoke.

The squealing made her jump and the bright lights blinded her for a moment. She turned her head and waited a moment for her eyes to clear. The team were squealing and she saw smoke rolling off their bodies as lights lit up all around the room. It wasn’t regular indoor lighting. It was UV lighting. Even Vaun had dropped his gun and was stepping back towards the center of the room. There was nowhere else for them to go. The lights ringed around the whole room.

Gus raised his gun and shot at one of the lights. She did the same, but there were a lot of them. She backed up, trying to get a better shot at the main ones, but they started moving. Pushing them further into the center of the room. Charlie couldn’t focus with the sound of the squealing. It was high pitched and she could smell burning flesh. It made her stomach turn. 

She turned to see where Gus was, but one of the creatures caught her in the temple. She stumbled back and fell into a recess in the floor that she was positive hadn’t been there before. Her head bounced off the edge of the recess and she landed hard on her knees on the bottom. The bottom was some kind of grating. If it wasn’t for the gloves and padding on her gear under the Stoneheart Uniform, it would have cut into her palms and knees. Before she could get up, the UV lights flashed up from below the grating, “Ah!” 

Blinded, she tried to pull herself up, but something heavy fell on top of her, “Gus! Help!” she screamed. Instead, another heavy object fell on top of her. As her eyes cleared a little, she realized it was the team and Vaun. They had been pushed into the recess. The smell was unbearable. It made her nauseous, “Gus!” but she was pushed down to the grating as two of them fell on top of her again. They withered and squealed, deafening her.

The smell, the lights, the sounds; it was all too much.

She felt her stomach turn and she vomited up the little bit of food she had eaten last night before collapsing. Passing out never felt like falling asleep. It felt more instant and sharp. It was like jumping into a pool. It just wrapped around you in barely a second.

Just instant darkness.


	10. Chapter 10

Three weeks. That’s how long she had been in here. She knew, because they had a clock on the wall that displayed the date and time.

It was greatly different from her semi-torture back at their facility. This was a clinic of some sort. It was sterile, white, and smelled like a hospital. She had stopped screaming and thrashing about on her hospital bed about a week ago. It made no difference.

She had woken up in here, her body felt like it was on fire. When she went to move the hair from her face, she found her arms were restrained to the bed. So were her ankles. There was a strap going across her waist too. Charlie started to panic and screamed for help.

The next few days were humiliating. It was worse than being trapped by Vaun. At least he had left her alone. These so called doctors violated her in every way medically. They talked about her body, looked at it, touched it, put a catheter in her so she didn’t have to be let up, and they talked about the state her medications had put her in. She cried the whole time and begged for them to stop. The only thing that could be worse was if one of them had forced themselves on her.

That never happened though and she was partially thankful for it. 

They never talked to her, only at her or around her. She was their test subject or at least one of them. They started injecting her with things, rubbing things on her arms,and running tests on her. Some of the things itched, some burned, some didn’t do anything at all. She couldn’t tell if they were pleased with the responses or not. 

Today she was just staring at the clock. It was all she had to do other than sleep.

The room door opened and she figured it was time for another round of testing. She was surprised when they wheeled in a second bed. She gasped when she realized who was on it. Strapped down in similar manner to her, but with chains as well, was Vaun. His face had a muzzle over it and he laid limp on the bedding as the pushed the bed up about two feet away from hers and left.

Her eyes darted from Vaun to the door and back again. Charlie was hesitant to say or do anything, but he turned his head to look at her. His dark eyes looked different. The skin around his eyes was red. The rest of his skin looked more gray. He was wearing nothing but a hospital gown like she was. He didn’t even seem to recognize her right away, “V-Vaun?”

His eyes flicked for a second and he looked at her curiously, “Charlie? What’re they doing to you?” his voice was different. It was strained.

“I don’t...I don’t know,” she felt tears welling up in her eyes. She felt helpless, “They put stuff on me that burns. The inject me with stuff. Why are they doing this?”

“Palmer wants to live forever, but he doesn’t want to be one of us. He thinks his doctors can figure out how to do that with my blood. I didn’t know they were testing it on you.”

Charlie went wide eyed and sat up fast, but her arms were still restrained down to the bed by the wrists, “What? That’s what they’ve been putting in me?!” she felt her heart starting to beat faster. The vitals machine that she was hooked to started beeping loudly. One of the nurses ran in and she snapped, “What the hell are you all doing to me?! Are you putting his blood in me?!”

“If you don’t calm down right now, I’m going to sedate you. Do you remember what happened the last time we did that?” she was breathing heavy and she couldn’t even seem to blink. Last time she freaked out on them was the last time she had done it at all before now. They hadn’t used medicine to sedate her. They had beat her until she was unconscious. Charlie’s face still felt tender from it, “That’s what I thought. Lay back down.”

Slowly, Charlie obeyed. Lowering herself back down to the bed and watching the woman leave the room. She didn’t know how to feel about this, “...am I going to turn into one of those things?”

“I don’t think so. If you were, you would have already started turning by now. They must be filtering out the worms.”

That was a minor relief. At least she knew now what they had planned for her. Palmer wanted to live forever and he was willing to give up humanity for it. She was the test subject to see if it worked or not. What if it did? Would he have her shot in the head before taking it himself? Or maybe he would have her fully turned.

While she was so focused on what was going to happen to herself, she finally looked back at Vaun. He was in just as bad situation as she was, she realized, “I’m sorry.”

“It’s not your fault. We walked into a trap. Palmer was prepared for us. He may not have known we are coming, but he was ready for when we would. We didn’t anticipate it.”

She tried to keep the tears back, but it was hard to, “We’re going to die here, aren’t we?”

“Yes,” at least he wasn’t sugar coating it. She doubted he knew how to do that.

Charlie couldn’t help but laugh a little, “Oh god. I’ve spent my whole life either running into situations that would kill me or running away from them. I walked headfirst into the worst possible situation. I’m so fucking stupid.”

“You’re not stupid. You were doing what you thought was right. I’m sorry for the way I treated you in the beginning. I don’t do well with humans. I realized too late that I shouldn’t have put you in that room,” the tears leaked down her face. It felt good to hear him apologizing, “I shouldn’t have involved you or Gus.”

Gus. She had wondered what happened to him, “Did he get caught too?”

“I don’t think so. I think he got away. I told him to run. I didn’t know you had fallen in. I would have told him to take you.”

“I don’t think he would have been able to get me out. The others fell on me and I passed out. I hope he got away,” someone needed to be out there that knew the truth, “Why haven’t the others come for you?”

“I’ve been cut off. They knew I was taken and they have severed the connection. I’m no longer one of them,” Charlie was sad to hear that. He was alone now too, “I’ve never had a day in my life without their voices in my head…” he trailed off.

“How...How old are you?” what else did they have to do? Talking seemed as good a thing to pass the time as any. If she didn’t keep talking, she was just going to keep crying.

“Three hundred.”

“Jesus Christ. Wow.”

“And all those years are going to end in here.”

There was despair in his voice. Charlie hadn’t thought it possible for Vaun to show such a range of emotion. It took a moment for her to realize why. He said it himself, he’d been with their voices for three hundred years in his head telling him what to do. He didn’t have it anymore. All he had were his own thoughts for the first time. Charlie couldn’t imagine what that was like, “Don’t say that. We might get out of here. Gus might find us…” of which she wanted to believe, but she was sure he was long gone.

When Vaun didn’t respond this time, she knew she had to do something, “Hey! Hey torture bitch!” she called out at the door, “Get your ass in here!”

The nurse came to the door and glared at her, “What do you want?”

“Move our beds closer. I want to hold his hand.”

That got a reaction out of both of them. Vaun tilted his head up as far as he could to look at her and the nurse stared at her like she was crazy, “What?”

“He’s my friend. The least you could do for me is move us to where I can hold his hand while you torture us.”

“It’s not torture. This all serves a purpose. You should be grateful…”

“Shut the fuck up!” she snapped, “Either do it or don’t. If you have a shred of decency in you, you’ll do it. I’m not fucking going anywhere.”

The other woman stared at her for a moment before looking over her shoulder and around the lab, “You’re nuts if you think that thing is your friend…” she shook her head before walking over and pushing Vaun’s bed closer to her own, “Two freaks…” she muttered as she started back out the door, “Don’t ask for anything else.”

“Don’t worry. I won’t. Cunt.”

Charlie wanted until she was sure the nurse was a good bit away before straining her hand a bit to reach out for his. They couldn’t touch much, but their fingers could curl against each others. His hand felt feverish and the skin was rough. The roughness was expected, “Why…”

She cut him off, “You said you respected me. No one’s ever said anything like that to me before.”

“I meant it.”

“I know. I might not agree with how you went about it, but I know you had good intentions. You were trying to help us. You...you never cared that I was a woman. That means a lot.”

“With more training, you would have made a good Sun Hunter,” his fingers curled against hers finally.

“You have a lot of respectable qualities yourself.”

“I’m not so sure about that.”

Charlie smiled a little, “You saw my worth and usefulness. I see that as something for me to find respectable.”

He turned his head to look at her. His face looked softer, “Thank you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I haven't decided if I want to continue the story beyond this or not. The TV show left the opening for the Strigoi much more available for expanding than the books/comics did. Debating whether to continue with Vaun and Charlie or to introduce Quinlan and bring back Gus. For now, this is where it ends. Sorry for those that hate open endings, but the tags did warn you.
> 
> Perhaps I'll change my mind next time I rewatch the series. Hope you all enjoyed.


End file.
